For those that are unfamiliar
with monitoring rats using tracking tunnels, these tunnels are left out all the
time, so rats get familiar with them in their territory and twice a year in the
spring and autumn we put an inked card in the tunnel along with peanut butter
as a lure. If rats are present, then they leave black ink footprints on the
card. This is a good way to record rat density. If no rats are recorded it does
not necessarily mean there are no rats but it does indicate that the population
is very low. We have 32 monitoring tunnels spread throughout the gully. This
November we recorded 1 card with rat prints, 2 cards with mouse prints and 9
cards with hedgehog prints. Overall an excellent result and a credit to all
those volunteers who service the 111 bait stations once a fortnight.
A copy of the “Tracking Tunnel Register”, is available in
the Mangaiti Gully Restoration Trust pdf
Library
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